Before Howard Schnellenberger’s Florida Atlantic Fighting Owls battled Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday, the coach donned his Lou Holtz mask, effusively praising the Ragin’ Cajuns: “They are truly a magnificent football team. They’ve improved a great deal since last year. This football team has certainly matured. They play the way champions should play.”

Final Score: FAU 40 - Lou/La 29.

The Schnell played subs during late goin with a big lead, then morphed into the New Math Schnell when postulating on the games score: “We won the game 40-7 and that’s what’s going to be in the memories and the history of our football team.”

FAU is 5-5 overall, 3-2 in the conference, with a very slim but mathematically conceivable way to make it to a bowl game. But only if the stars are perfectly aligned in terms of conference wins and losses by several teams as the season plays out. Which in no way deters Schnell the Optimist. When concluding his post-game lecture to his squad, he led them in this final cheer: “One, two, three, bowl game.”

– Seedy K